The Carney's: who are not in Carnivals: Christmas: Its the most wonderful time of the year!

So I am FINALLY getting around to even thinking about blogging and it's while I have two seconds to even think. So lets start off with our wonderful holiday. Christmas was so much fun and we really enjoyed our time as our small family before we added on with our son. It was a great time to do special Marley and us things. Anyways, we had our small family Christmas on Christmas Eve, for a couple reasons and we are glad we did...since we went to my moms for Christmas it made it feel really special having our own little day to celebrate fully with Marley and soak up that last time with it being just her.

TJ went into work on Christmas Eve so it was just Marley and I during the day. (He had a 'party' and was getting paid so I couldn't really complain) so I decided Marley and I would make Christmas cookies to hand out to our neighbors and friends. I got a cool cookie press that had a few seasonal cutouts I wanted to try with a sugar cookie recipe. And then of course decorating is always fun! Marley really enjoys sitting on the counter while I cook/bake anything so she was game....plus the cookies were really good and she couldn't get enough! Well I tried a Christmas tree cutout along with a snowflake....least to say they turned out really...not looking like trees and snowflakes. BUT they were delicious! And I have learned that decorating cookies with a toddler results in no cookies getting frosted...so we ended up loosing cookies and icing into Marley's mouth, haha.

I originally had planned on handing out cookies to our neighbors and giving them to TJ's coworkers...well, we gave them out to our friends who just had a baby....and that was basically it. 2 batches of cookies. And we gave out one plate of cookies. The rest? Well they sat on our table for a few days and got eaten slowly over the next week...I know, gross. Haha.

So anyways, Christmas Eve, making cookies. After ALL the cookies were baked I realized it was getting late and I hadn't started on dinner or anything! We couldn't have leftovers or the grab-what-you-can-find night....it was a special night so I thought I might as well try and make a tradition meal out of it. What better meal to make than breakfast for dinner! TJ doesn't like breakfast for dinner and I try to get it any chance I can...so I said lets make it a tradition we make cookies and deliver them and also have breakfast for dinner. He was game for it so I get to have breakfast for dinner at least once a year now and it be okay. SCORE! ;)

Well, then we opened presents. This was.....an interesting experience with Marley, she would start to unwrap gifts and start sobbing while continuing opening gifts....it was comical to say the least and it was all fun in games until she opened her Mr. Potato head.....she saw the face and RAN to her room crying. Well, we got him along with Mrs. Potato head....and we only got her one or two more things and two of those gifts made her cry. Crap. So now we have a potato head set in our closet until we can try for her birthday or something. I thought it would be great since she is learning body parts....well, apparently not. But she loved her stuffed puppy we got her and a little kid tablet v-tech thingy her great grandma got her.

All month long I had TJ convinced he didn't get anything for Christmas. That I didn't want anything and I couldn't find anything he liked. I had him so convinced that all the presents were for Marley. After we opened what were the last of Marley's gifts I surprised him with a few and he was very surprised! He wanted a watch for sometime and kept mentioning how nice it would be to have a watch again. He was pretty happy with it and wears it all the time. The second gift was more of a family gift but it really was mainly for him since he complained about it the most (haha). Best Buy had a sale going on and I ended up caving in and getting him a sound bar for the living room TV. We enjoyed setting it up and listening to some Christmas tunes the rest of the evening.

Oh, and TJ was a sweetheart and got me a year membership to the gym and new work out clothes, I am excited to hit the gym again when I am cleared!

The main point of being so busy that day was to keep myself preoccupied with only days left until we ventured off into bringing our son into the world, so that evening we went and visited our friends in the hospital who just had their baby the day prior. This was so exciting for us because we were about to be in that same position and it made it seem more real! It was a joyous visit and while one of us went in the other chased Marley around. TJ got the short visit because chasing Marley around the hospital was fun but very tiring for me. But Marley LOVED running around and seeing the baby pictures they have on the walls saying baby every time she saw one. It was pretty cute :)

We went home and just enjoyed the rest of the evening together.

The next day was of course fun and relaxing.....growing up I was always the early bird and maybe it was the uncomfort of having a baby in me but I didn't really sleep...so I was up at the crack of 2 am, ha! We had a slow morning just slowly getting ready and taking a nap before we went out to my moms. When we arrived we spent time opening presents for Marley. She is such a little girl and has a thing for shoes...she ended up getting a couple pairs and wouldn't let them go after opening them, so her lap got pretty full! She also received Frozen things, such as an Elsa dress, an Olaf snowman, a lunch box and hat and gloves. My mom loves it because anytime Marley sees something with Anna, Elsa, Olaf...she starts singing Let it Go. So she of course sang "Let it Go" when a gift Frozen related was open. Its pretty cute, she carries her Elsa dress around with her (its a little too big and she cant walk with it on without stepping on it) and her favorite hat is her Anna hat. Though, Olaf kind of freaks her out right now.

She also got a few books with animals in them (touch and feel) since we are working on her animals right now. She knows: a bee, dog, sheep, and a cow...well kind of on the cow. Apparently a cow says 'cow, cow, cow' and an egg says 'crack, crack, crack' haha...we always getting a good laugh out of it :)

We spent the rest of the day playing our favorite game Dominion and I feasted on egg nog and lots of shrimp! (It was my last day being pregnant and I wanted to enjoy some yummy foods) It was a very enjoyable Christmas and we ended up going home super late to try and keep our minds busy so we could sleep as much as possible for our special next day :)

Well, that was our wonderful Christmas. Marley enjoyed it. We enjoyed it. And we hope you enjoyed yours as well. Happy Holidays!